353 Japanese fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes launched from 6
aircraft carriers causing enormous loss to the US Navy: 4 of its
battleships were sunk, while the remaining 4 were extensively damaged;
additionally 1 minelayer, 1 anti-aircraft training ship, 3 cruisers, and 3
destroyers were badly hit, and 188 aircrafts were destroyed. 2403
Americans were killed, while 1178 were wounded.
Both the scale and the unexpectedness of the unprovoked attack
profoundly shocked the Americans. The attack happened without a
declaration of war by Japan or without explicit warning.
Pearl Harbor effectively turned the European war into a global war.
1941 Dec 8 The Pearl Harbor attack led to the US entry into WW-II. The US
declared war on Japan.
1941 Dec 11 The Axis Powers declared war on the US.
1941 Dec
–1942 Apr
Japanese troops landed in the Philippines, French Indochina (Vietnam,
Laos, Cambodia), and British Singapore, and by April 1942 they came
under Japanese occupation.
British strongholds in South East Asia began to fall into Japanese hands
one by one. The security of the Indian sub-continent was threatened.
1941 Dec 23 Taking cognizance of the changed world situation in the wake of the
Pearl Harbor, the CWC meeting at Bardoli in Gujarat recognised India
could not be defended non-violently against a Japanese invasion. (—A
profound realisation! As if against an invader other than Japan, quixotic
non-violent means would have worked!)
At the persuasion of Rajaji, subject to the declaration of freedom for
India, the CWC offered cooperation with the Allies.
1941 Dec 23 The Wake Island, then under the US, fell to the Japanese.
1941 Dec 27 The Philippines, then under the US, fell to the Japanese.
1942 Jan 14 Japanese captured Malaysia, then under the British, taking 50,000 Allied
soldiers as prisoners of war.
Japanese captured parts of Indonesia.
1942 Feb 15 Japanese captured the British stronghold of Singapore—aka the
‘Gibraltar of the East’—taking 85,000 Allied soldiers (British, Indian,
and Australian) as prisoners of war. PM Winston Churchill called the
ignominious fall of Singapore as the "worst disaster" and "largest
capitulation" in the British military history.
1942 Jan At the AICC meeting in Wardha, the Bardoli proposal of 23 Dec 1941
was ratified in the hope that the British authorities would do something
positive for India.
1942 Mar 7 Burma (Myanmar) was the next target of the Japanese blitzkrieg.
Rangoon fell on 7 March 1942. With that, the attack on India seemed
imminent.
Looking to the critical situation, the US President Roosevelt and the
Chinese Generalissimo Chiang urged the British PM Churchill to make
a reconciliatory move towards the Congress to obtain India’s full co-
operation in WW-II. Churchill was reluctant, but once Rangoon fell, he
was forced to make a move. He announced a mission to Delhi under the
Leader of the House, Sir Stafford Cripps.
1942 Mar Over Radio Berlin, Indians heard Netaji Bose for the first time after
about a year in March 1942 confirming his taking of help from the Axis
Powers for the Indian independence.